We also have confirmation from Lou that Jack Walker wasn't given a qualifying offer, so one year after he was drafted as an overager, he is a free agent. He attended Minnesota's development camp (where he's from).

By the way, just because it was brought up in another thread but if we were ranking our prospects right now I think pretty unquestionably the top forward prospect we have is Kapanen and our top defensive prospect, probably by a significant degree, is Liljegren. Actually, I'd say both guys are considerably secure in their #1 spots with maybe Bracco or Dermott being pretty distant seconds.

Which is to say that A) the prospect pool isn't terribly deep right now and B) if we're planning deals around prospects, those are the guys teams are going to ask for.

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Give a man the reputation of an early riser and he can sleep 'til noon-Mark Twain

We also have confirmation from Lou that Jack Walker wasn't given a qualifying offer, so one year after he was drafted as an overager, he is a free agent. He attended Minnesota's development camp (where he's from).

LW is a bit of a toss-up depending on how you'd measure the ranking: likelihood to make the NHL? ceiling at the NHL? Likelihood to make the Leafs under Babcock?

Along with Johnsson, I'd put Grundstrom and Timashov there as options, but both of them have a smaller body of work with the Marlies. Rychel, while currently probably better, is, I believe, pretty much at his ceiling (4th line with a pop of skill occasionally).

Also, re: the general weakness of the prospect pool that's obviously to be expected more or less with the team's big improvement last year being mainly driven by guys graduating from the pool itself but we should keep in mind that what the trading of 2nd and 1sts has done, as well as the team's hipster drafting of guys nobody's heard of, has meant is that they not only don't have any A guys left they really don't have any B guys either(Liljegren being the only one really).

So that's why we need to be careful about the idea of tossing in the 2018 1st rounder into trade ideas. Building up a group of those B-level prospects is going to be important for the team to compete in a post-triplet extension world. Effectively, the team made all of the picks and prospects for immediate help they can already between moves like Andersen and Boyle.

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Give a man the reputation of an early riser and he can sleep 'til noon-Mark Twain

We also have confirmation from Lou that Jack Walker wasn't given a qualifying offer, so one year after he was drafted as an overager, he is a free agent. He attended Minnesota's development camp (where he's from).

Why are we wasting our picks on crap? Honestly.

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